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Monthly Archives: August 2012

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We have absolutely loved being a part of the Pass the Blog project and have especially enjoyed the feedback and suggestions from teachers from other places. THANKYOU!

Earlier this week, James and Ryan shared a draft of their news post. They got feedback and then went out and edited/ refined their first draft. If this was a written text it would be their second draft.

Ms B is really proud of the boys who worked through their lunch breaks to produce this text…

Ella and her mum, Camilla, came into our class to show us ‘Boo Bubbles.’ Camilla told us that boo bubbles are made of dry ice. Dry ice is a solid form of gas called co2. Dry ice is -75 degrees Celsius – very cold. You cannot hold solid dry ice in your hand.

Camilla held a piece of dry ice up and it looked like it was smoking. This process is called ‘sublimation, which means the solid form is turning back into gas. Then Camilla put the dry ice in the cold water. The water looked like it was boiling. There was lots of white gas forming on the top of the water.

When we dipped the hose, attached to the container of dry ice and water, into the bubble mixture the gas created solid looking white, purple coloured bubbles. The bubbles popped on our hands because our hands had grease on them. We pulled our sleeves over our hands and held onto the bubbles. I noticed when I held the bubble that it slowly shrank and when it got tiny it burst. When a big bubble burst I saw a puff of steam, which was actually just the co2 gas.

Shania is back with us after spending over 6 months in Dunedin and Auckland hospitals. More recently she has been in the Wilson Centre for rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Shania has returned to Dunedin and our School. She said that her favourite thing was coming home and seeing her cat, Felix.

Shania is usually back at school for 1 hour before morning tea.We love having her back learning with us.

The Neinsteins continue to use Skype to break down their classroom walls and reach out to experts, other classrooms and to explore the world.

This month they are learning with their friends from Broadlands School which is near Taupo. They are teaching the Neinsteins a waiata called Puti Puti. During their first skype session during Maori language week, James greeted Room 5 and shared his mihi. They then sang a waiata.

Room 5 replied with Ethan’s mihi and a waiata called Utaina. They then offered to teach the Neinsteins a waiata called “Puti Puti”. To top it off, Room 5 created this fantastic teaching video that the Neinsteins have used throughout the week to master the words.

Today, the Neinsteins skyped back into Room 5 at Broadlands. It felt like they were just calling friends! Room 5 showed the Neinsteins the actions to Puti Puti today and are once again going to put together a teaching video for them.

The Neinsteins can’t wait to video them performing Puti Puti so that Room 5 can see the amazing influence they have had on them!

Earlier this week we asked our readers to let us know what they are enjoying about the Olympics and how they think their teams will go. In maths today, we took the data and began graphing it.
Out first question was what Olympic sport are you most enjoying?
This graph shows us:

that swimming is the most popular event.

gymnastics and rowing are enjoyed equally as much.

the people who replied like many different sports. This shows how different people’s interests are.

My squad landed here at Gallipoli today and the Turks welcomed us with some shelling, hundreds died right there in front of us! I’m just glad I wasn’t one of them.
Then we had to dig our trenches while the Turks fired upon us. My mate Jacoe was shot in the arm twice and sent to the infirmary.

Day 2

I met Jack Simpson today, I helped him load an injured soldier onto his donkey and then he took him back to the infirmary.
And also when we were training a bomber attacked us, when the bomb went of our General said a bad word, it was pretty funny but we finally found him and took him hostage.

Day 3

Three days here and I’m scared straight I can’t close my eyes and every time I here a noise I grab my gun! Even the mice in the trench are scaring me.
Anyway today when the whistle blows we charge at the Turkish trenches and hope to take them. WWWHHHOOOAAA the whistle just blew I grabbed my gun and took a couple steps towards our tanks but then I must of got shot because I blacked out.
I woke up in the infirmary with Jacoe by my side he told me that Jack Simpson found me and took me to our new trenches.

Day 4

Today Jacoe and some other of the ANZACS were shot dead by Turkish Machine Gun fire near ANZAC Cove I could just imagine how sad Mrs. Dulis is going be when she gets the telegram.
Pretty soon I’m getting an award for saving and bringing Jacoe’s body back to camp for his Funeral.
Now I’ve got fourteen medals and trophies but this one is definitely one I’ll remember.

Day 5

Last night while I was asleep I herd these weird noises like dogs barking and donkey’s hooves trotting but now I know why, reinforcements came while we were asleep with tracking dogs and more donkeys.
Man as soon as a gun fired they screamed and barked it was almost funnier then when the general swore.
The new donkeys were so clean compared to the ones that have been here since the start. Anyway Gallipoli are still pushing my buttons with loads of bombs and bullets every couple of minutes!

Day 6

Tomorrow me and a couple other hundred ANZACS are going to try push further up into Turkish boundaries we are gonna have to climb up the cliffs to the Turkish tents its crazy but it may just work.

Day 7

Today is the day we take Gallipoli oh sorry journal I got to go it’s time!

Hello I’m another Anzac soldier called Ralph, Jake has died he was shot while he was climbing up the cliff and fell down and fell into the the rocky beach his body has been buried in Flanders Field along with the other thousands of men who died today.

We are learning to produce video texts as a way of sharing our news. Ms B was so excited when she found this video that the boys made during lunchtime. Please view it as a first draft and give them some valuable feedback… They have one very proud teacher who is hoping her neinsteins can develop their own next steps…

Can you, our readers help us to develop our Vlogging Skills by giving us feedback?

On Monday we began to tune into our new inquiry… We launched our cups of knowledge by sharing in a cup of water and thinking about water and how it fits in our daily lives. We have put a sample of our current knowledge into our cups and will add to them as we learn more. This term, we will watch our learning grow by asking ourselves “So What?” on a daily basis. Watch our cups of knowledge fill up and flow over…

I liked having time to think about what I think I know and think about what I don’t know. It was fun having time to present our cups of knowledge, drink water and take photos.

This year our inquiry is all about our planet and how its Spheres interact with each other. During the first half of the year, we acted like geologists. We went on field trips, interviewed volcanologists and investigated buildings and Second Beach.

This term we have begun to think about the water on our planet, after all – It’s not just rocks! Like St Mary’s School, we began to think about our wonderings. Normally these are just displayed on a wall in our room but we thought it was pretty cool that readers began to contribute to Room 6’s learning so we thought we would display our wondering wall here…

Please click on the picture and help us with your expertise and experiences…

What would be your best day ever? I think my best day ever would be to go to Sydney (Australia). What I would want to do first is to go to the Sydney zoo and to look at all the koalas and kangaroos. I’d pick would be my three sisters, my Mum and Dad to come with me.

When I would get to Sydney I would also want to go to theme parks, shopping and other different places but I would want to go to the Sydney Opera house as well. The thing I like about the Sydney Opera house is that the building goes in spirals

I would also want to go to all the different places in town to go shopping and to drive around all the different places I haven’t been. Going shopping in Sydney would be the 2nd best thing to do in Sydney for me.

I think my favourite thing in Sydney would be going to Sydney the zoo and looking at the koala’s and kangaroo’s. But looking at the rest of the amazing like, the Sydney Oprah house shopping, and the theme parks and going to town I’ll still will like going to the zoo the most that’s what my best day would be.

The Neinsteins are learning to share their news in video format instead of print this month. This has meant that we have had to learn a lot of technical skills as well as think about our purpose and audience. Today, after many technical issues we finally finished our first vlog. It is a little bit old as we are talking about something that we did last week but we have learnt heaps. Now we want our readers to help us by giving us feedback so that we can improve the Neinstein News.